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Casinos> Gambling Articles > A Brief History of Blackjack
A Brief History of Blackjack
For
many years, blackjack has been a staple of the modern casino, and one of the
most popular of all card games. It is
thought that this exciting casino game first originated in France, where
it was known as “vingt-et-un”, or “twenty-one”.
It is thought that blackjack dates back to the 17th century,
and it is unlikely to lose popularity anytime soon.
Blackjack
is, of course, still played in modern day France, and all around the world as
well. In fact, the game of blackjack is extremely popular in Russia, where
it goes by the names “21” and “Ochko (the hole). In Russia, blackjack is played not
only in casinos but by ordinary people for fun as well. The Russian people enjoy blackjack a great
deal and play it passionately.
The
English term of blackjack is derived from the original French card game in
which a player was rewarded if he or she drew a Jack of spades and an Ace of
spades as his or her first two cards.
Since the first card drawn was a black jack, the game eventually came to
be known by that name.
The
game of blackjack traveled across the Atlantic to the United States shortly after the French Revolution, and it soon became a favorite with
gamblers and casual players as well.
Professional gamblers soon realized that blackjack was a fertile ground
for proper betting strategy and odds manipulation. At that time, gambling was flourishing,
perhaps due to the lack of government oversight, and the game of blackjack
continued to thrive in this freewheeling environment.
As
the beginning of the 19th century loomed, the United States government realized that the unregulated gambling industry was rife with
corruption, and that it was encouraging organized crime. Therefore, the state of Nevada outlawed gambling in 1910, driving
players underground and leading to a hard core of gangsters, gamblers and
others. When the authorities realized
that the illegality of gambling was not sustainable, they legalized the
practice while creating new laws designed to protect gamblers, and creating the
overseeing bodies responsible for running the gambling industry.
In
this newborn world of legalized gambling, blackjack flourished as never before,
quickly spreading like wildfire throughout all the casino properties in Las Vegas. In this new world, Las Vegas quickly became the king of the
gambling industry, and blackjack quickly became one of the most popular of all
casino games.
Of
course, these days, blackjack is hardly confined to Las Vegas, and indeed it is played around the
globe. Blackjack is a favorite game in
casinos around the world, including all the countries of Europe, Russia, Asia and of course the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Blackjack
has from the beginning attracted the attention of the scientifically minded,
drawn by its odds and the many mathematical possibilities that figure into the
game. Over the years, plenty of money
and interest was poured into the search for the perfect blackjack strategy, and
in 1956 a mathematician by the name of Roger Baldwin came up with what is still
known as the basic strategy for playing the game of blackjack. This strategy was published in the Journal of
American Statistical Association, and it consisted of cue cards used to teach
the best blackjack strategy.
Some
years later another mathematician named Edward Thorp built on this basic
strategy and came up with the modern card counting techniques known to gamblers
today. The card counting strategy uses
knowledge of the cards already dealt to make predictions about the cards
remaining in the deck or multiple deck shoe.
The theory is that the more low value cards that have been dealt, the
more high value cards there are remaining in the deck. The blackjack player who feels the deck is
stacked with high value cards will of course up his or her bet to take
advantage of the perceived increase in odds.
Professor
Thorp’s work caused a sensation in the world of gambling, and the strategies he
developed continue to be used even to this day.
There are of course many variations on the card counting strategy, and
card counting continues to be a great way for smart and savvy players to even
the odds with the casino.
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